Mix the shallots, butter, honey and mustard together. Loosen the skin on the duck legs to create a pocket and rub some of the mixture inside the pocket and all over the legs. Place the duck on a rack, skin side down, in a baking pan and allow to rest for 30 minutes. Reserve the rest of the honey mustard mixture for basting.

Toss the onions with the 2 tbsp of butter and place in a separate baking pan. Toss the pears with the lemon juice and set aside.

Place the duck legs in a 400 F oven for 30 minutes. Remove, turn and baste with the reserved mixture, then return to the oven, along with the onions for 30 minutes. Remove the onions and duck. Baste the duck, add the pears and thyme sprigs to the onions and return both to the oven for 15 minutes.

Hi Anna. This recipe should work with chicken as long as it’s not a Perdue type chicken (too soft or something), maybe a large free range. You would also want to decrease the cooking time to 45 – 55 minutes.

Awesome, Rosemary. That looks delicious. It’s funny; I was looking at packets of duck legs this morning. They’re not actually that expensive. Perhaps It’s time I came up with a frugal way to prepare duck!

Thank you Frugal. You are right, duck legs are not that expensive and there is a lot of meat on one duck leg. I intend to recycle the left overs into salads and perhaps a mini duck pie, if my daughter doesn’t go for seconds 🙂